Quantumsurfer wrote:Yeah, ok, not the worst suggestion. But sure, let's do that instead. So did I miss something or is the nearest archive of information likely to be in the town I just suggested we return to?

We're doing your suggestion, it's too late to go back. While we're here we might as well find information and stock up our inventories.

Your journey back to Eisgir is uneventful. After one day's travel you make camp in the wilderness, on the second you walk in through the city gates. This is the warmest day of the year so far, and here and there the snow is starting to melt.

The hardships of your adventure have earned you 233 XP each!

Here's everyone's situation as of now. Over the course of this journey you have all consumed one week's worth of food rations.

The monastery of Päkkaan has the greatest library in the city, so Adarim and Saucix go there. The snow on the cathedral roof is melting, and water is flowing through the snouts of the mammoth-shaped gargoyles. Below each shower flock the sick and the crippled. As Saucix knows, it is said that spring's first meltwater from the cathedral gives good health and long life.

The library has a great number of books on magical artifacts, and Saucix begins the tedious task of looking through them for relevant information. He finds several descriptions of magic orbs. The crystal orbs used by fortune-tellers; the flying assassin orbs of living metal; the Orb of Zarra that fell from the sky. None of them seems to match the stone orbs he found, though. After an hour of searching, mother Salvegard enters the library.

"Saucix! I heard that you had returned. What did you find on your journey?"

---

Out in the street, Nisos and Logan are approached by a well-dressed and broad-bellied woman. She looks at Logan in amazement.

"Beautiful... I'll give you three hundred gold coins for the skin of that mink!"

Remus: Harry... I'm a werewolf.
Harry: Are you fucking serious?
Remus: Well yes, but I don't see how that applies here.

He's our friend! But that's... a lot of money... consider bartering for more.

"You will find me at the Tavern when you are ready." Before I head to the tavern, I walk through the merchant's square to see if there is anything worth buying. I sell the goblin shortsword. I buy a warhammer, rope and nails, and a tinderbox. I ask around about oddities and curiosities that I may afford, alchemical potions and the like. Afterwards I spend enough to buy another 2 weeks of rations, and a good meal of meat and mead for the night.

A weapons dealer is intrigued by the worn but strangely shaped goblin sword, and gives Gerald 5 gp for it. Gerald buys a warhammer, a 50' rope, 12 nails, a tinderbox, and two weeks of food rations for 25 gp, leaving him with 24 gp. Then he goes to check the apothecary and curiosity shop.

The apothecary has only a few potions in stock, but many strange ingredients. "My customers mostly make their own brews" , he says. The ones available are:

-Two honey-yellow potions which cure disease. 40 gp each-One clear potion which "turns you into wind". 300 gp-One pink potion. "I'm not sure what that one does. You'll get it for 10 gold pieces."

The curiosity shop has a lot of junk, but the most notable things are:

-A glass lens which magnifies objects seen through it. The shop owner insists it is magical. 10 gp-On Conquest and the Conqueror, a book on military strategy by General Titania of Sklarr. 5 gp-A jar of brown-green salve. "It heals what ails you. So said the seller at least." 10 gp

"If you have any interesting items I'm willing to trade them for things from my shop."

Remus: Harry... I'm a werewolf.
Harry: Are you fucking serious?
Remus: Well yes, but I don't see how that applies here.

Forget the mead, I'm getting a meal and reading that shit while I eat.

"I've no intention of selling this blade, but can you help me discover what properties this magic sword may have?" I pull my sunlight blade from the scabbard and show it to him in a non-threatening manner.

Gregor buys two weeks of rations and the healing salve for 20 gp, leaving him with 44 gp.

Gerald buys the book and the magnifying lens for 15 gp. The curiosity shop owner looks over the sword.

"It would take a mage to do a proper identification of this. But the heat it spreads makes me guess it's connected with fire or some other warm element."

Gerald gets a meal for 1 gp (leaving 8 gp) and starts reading On Conquest and the Conqueror. General Titania of Sklarr, a land to the southwest, writes from her own experiences during the conquest of its neighbor Nexis, a war which took place roughly 50 years ago. The text is mostly a practical guide for tactics in large-scale military engagements, but there are also a few chapters dealing with how to control a conquered populace in an effective manner.

Remus: Harry... I'm a werewolf.
Harry: Are you fucking serious?
Remus: Well yes, but I don't see how that applies here.